Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Mark Epstein's a F**king Idiot

I am not a Michael Moore fan. I feel like the world suffers from Moore's inability to get a spine. I feel like we on the left suffer for it.

So imagine me feeling sorry for Moore?

Mark Epstein managed to make me feel sorry for Moore.

He writes this idiotic rant that is so over the top and so overblown that it's hard to believe it wasn't meant as a joke.

Sadly, Epstein was serious. No link to his trash. The article is entitled "Michael Moore Inc."

Epstein's bent out of whack because Glenn Greenwald won't let him in the Circle Jerk until Epstein has attacked the film Zero Dark Thirty repeatedly.

Having compared Kathryn Bigelow to Leni Riefnstahls, maybe he can now compare himself to Junior Seau and follow that path?

Zero Dark Thirty is a great movie.

It is not endorsing torture.

There's a reality to the film -- part of the reason Radical Communists and Socialists (like Mark Epstein) -- hate the film. C.I. pointed that out Sunday and we were all like, "Damn. Wish I'd thought of that." She always gets stuff like that. What flies over everyone's head, she notices.

But I'll let her keep that.

I'll just note that Little Mark Epstein really hates women. Maybe Glenn can fix him up with a nice guy?

I hope so because Mark writes like a man who hasn't been laid in decades.

The sexual impotency is so present in his words and sentences. You really feel for him because you get the feeling that the only sex he ever had was when he finally talked some woman into a pity f**k and, just as he entered, he jizzed. And went limp.

And she was like, "You're kidding, right?"

And he was all, "Huh? Is something wrong? Oh, geez, look at the time, I've got to go."

January 29, 2013. Chaos and violence continue, protests continue, Nouri
and State of Law smear Anbar Province, Nouri imprisons a Le Monde journalist, CNN is stopped from reporting by Iraqi police, Nouri tosses out a few dollars more at Sahwa, and more.

We're
going to have to deal with something first. Women in America are under
enough assault. If you have a problem with a woman, call her out. If
you're making blanket statements attacking women -- large swaths of
unnamed women -- you need to stop calling yourself a feminist. You're
not a feminist. You're a pain in the ass -- I'm referring to Zillah
Eisenstein, you're a Marxist, you're a woman who needs to learn how to
use brush on that ratty hair (or is grooming not important at Ithaca
College), but you're not a feminist.

Cindy Sheehan shared her opinion
on the change regarding combat and allowing US women into combat and
did so without insulting women. For Cindy, instead of including women
in combat, she felt the world would be better served by having men
banned from combat as well and ending wars. That is a feminist view.
We were happy to include it.

But not everyone has Cindy heart and
the result is that a lot of women are getting pissed off because
they're being insulted. I understand the feeling and you can include me
on that list. This topic is currently the number one issue today in
the e-mails to this site according to Martha and Shirley
who informed me last night that it was also the number one topic
yesterday. You may or may not choose to join the military. If you do,
you may or may not choose to go for combat. These are choices. And
women can be make any choice they want.

Zillah Eisenstein's assault at Al Jazeera
is only the latest thing angering women. She feels the need to refer
to Iraq War veteran Jessica Lynch as "the now famous blond." Excuse
me? What the hell does Jessica Lynch's hair color have to do with one
damn thing? Oh, yeah, we get the coded language you're trying to speak
in Zillah. (And your hatred for the pretty girl, yeah, we get that
too.) She makes other insane comments. "The pay" is not "about equal
between Wal-Mart and the military" and that's an offensive statement.
Wal-Mart has a pledge to hire vets. I've been asked why we're not
applauding that. Wal-Mart screws over people regularly, they underpay
and they also have a real problem of requiring people to work off the
clock. A job at Wal-Mart is better than a job no where but I'm not
going to praise it. Equally true, if you join the military, you've got
health care. If you're married to a member of the opposite sex (and
hopefully this will shortly be true if you're married to a member of the
same sex), they have health care coverage. If you honorably discharge
or retire from the service, you've got the VA for health care. Do not
pretend that Wal-Mart and the military are "about equal" in terms of
pay. That's disgusting. And you would think a Marxist would go out of
her way to avoid making such an idiotic statement.

Zillah wants
you not to "confuse the presence of females, especially in combat, with
gender 'equality'." No problem, Zillah. I see Al Jazeera offering
token American women as columnists. I never mistake these women for
feminists. Including Zillah.

Throughout time and history, women
have shown various sides and carried out various roles. But Zillah
wants you to be 'dainty.' If you want combat, there's something wrong
with you and you're not a woman or you're a woman who loves drones or
whatever else garbage Zillah's tossing out in her badly written article
that goes to how academic 'feminists' really need to learn to write for
the masses when they're writing columns for the people. Amazons are a
part of Greek mythology. That's Hippolyta and her sister Penthesilea.
So in 7th century BC, women fighters could be envisioned but it's
somehow unknown to Zillah?

Women can be whatever they want to be
and should be. We don't question a man's identity because he wants to
go into combat, nor should we question a woman's identity.

Right
now, women veterans and women service members are watching as various
men attack them and insist that they couldn't handle combat. At the
same time, do we really need Zillah and her kindred also attacking women
and suggesting there's something wrong with them if they want to take
part in combat?

I don't think so. Equally true, we're talking about different genders, not different species. This nonsense has to stop.

You
want to call out women? There are plenty worth calling out. Choose a
name and have at it. But don't insult a group of women and think you're
a feminist because you're not. Don't degrade their dreams and desires
because your own are different. That's not feminism. What Zillah
practicies does have a name: Know-it-all-ism.

By contrast, Laura Browder (Time magazine) listens to women:As I talked to more than 50 women who have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan—or
both—I was struck by how determined many of these women were to serve
their country on the battlefield. Army Staff Sergeant Jamie Rogers told
me, “As a soldier, it’s something that you always want to do. For
myself, I felt it was my obligation and that’s what I had been training
for all these years, to do my job in combat. And I was very honored. I
got to lead soldiers in combat, and I proved to myself that all this
training was worthwhile.”Rogers, who was in the military police, was out on patrol 12 hours of
every 24. As she said of the experience, “It’s very life-changing.”
While civilians may still see women in the military as being marginal,
no female soldier I ever talked to saw herself as anything less than a
military professional on par with her male comrades in arms.As one West Point graduate explained to me, it felt as though she had
been reading technical manuals on how to ride a bicycle—but to really
be a soldier, she had to get on the bike itself. I heard variations of
this sentiment from many women. And of course, many of the women I
talked to did serve as explosives-sniffing dog handlers, military police
whose jobs involved busting down doors and conducting house-to-house
searches, and convoy gunners like Bumgarner.

Still on the military, he wants to shake hands with Blake Shelton
and he's looking forward to the day he can drive again. Those were two
of the answers Iraq War veteran Brendan Marrocco gave today at a Johns
Hopkins Hospital news conference in Baltimore Maryland today. An April
12, 2009 bombing left him a quadruple amputee. Yesterday, came news
that last month Brendan received a double-arm transplant. Today he
participated in a news conference wearing a "Keep Calm and Chive On"
t-shirt. Brendan Marrocco: I hated not having arms. I was
alright with not having legs. Not having arms takes so much away from
you, even your personality. You know, you talk with your hands, you do
everything with your hands basically, and when you don't have that,
you're kind of lost for awhile.

About his donor, Brendan
Marrocco declared, "I don't know too much about the donor, but I would
like to thank them. I'm humbled. They've changed my life." Christina
Lopez and Matthew Larotonda (ABC News) report on the news conference here. CBS News covers the news conference here and Linda Carroll (NBC News) covers it here.
(Quote and answers are from the conference. A friend was supposed to
have help covering the news conference. He did not. So while he got
images, he left the phone line open and I took notes for him. I heard
the conference, I was not present.)

Brendan Marrocco:
You know I never really gave up on too much that really mattered to me.
If I didn't care, I gave up in a second but if I truly cared about it
in my heart, uh, if it really meant something to me, I would go through
hell to do it so that's basically what I'm doing now.

Today Wladimir van Wilgenburg (Rudaw) observes,
"The British government remains reluctant to recognize the 1988 gassing
of thousands of Iraqi Kurds by Saddam Hussein as genocide, saying it is
waiting for an international judicial body to make sure a declaration
first." That's not the only thing the British government is struggling
to deal with. Sky News explains,
"Scores of lawyers representing Iraqis are going to the High Court
seeking an 'independent' public inquiry into allegations that British
interrogators were guilty of the systemic abuse of civilians in Iraq." ITV notes that Public Interest Lawyers' Phil Shiner is representing 192 Iraqis. So what was taking place at the High Court today? Al Bawaba explains that arguments were being delivered as to "whether a previous inquiry run by the British Ministry of Defence
was robust enough and sufficiently independent, as well as if
mistreatment was systematic. The case is expected to last three days."

That'll be much shorter than the days spent behind bars in Iraq for a Le Monde journalist. As we noted this morning, Nadir
Dendoune, who holds dual Algerian and Australian citizenship was
covering Iraq for the fabled French newspaper Le Monde's monthly
magazine. His assignment was to document Iraq 10 years after the start
of the Iraq War. Alsumaria explains
the journalist was grabbed by authorities in Baghdad last week for the
'crime' of taking pictures. (Nouri has imposed a required permit,
issued by his government, to 'report' in Iraq.) All Iraq News adds the journalist has been imprisoned for over a week now without charges.

The 'crime' of taking pictures? You may remember Nouri immediately
launched a war on the press in the summer of 2006. Let's drop back to the October 2, 2006 snapshot:

Operation Happy Talkers are on the move and telling you that Nouri
al-Maliki offers a 'four-point' peace plan. You may have trouble
reading of the 'four-point' plan because the third point isn't about
"peace" or "democracy" so reports tend to ignore it. The first step has
already been (rightly) dismissed by Andrew North (BBC)
of the "local security committees": "In fact, most neighourhoods of
Baghdad set up their own local security bodies some time ago to protect
themselves -- because they do not trust the authorities to look after
them." AP reports
that the Iraqi parliament voted in favor of the 'peace' plan (reality
title: "continued carnage plan"). Step three? Let's drop back to the September 7th snapshot:

Switching to the issue of broadcasting, were they showing episodes of Barney Miller or NYPD Blue? Who knows but police pulled the plug on the satellite network al-Arabiya in Baghdad. CNN was told by a company official (Najib Ben Cherif) that the offices "is being shut for a month." AP is iffy on who gave the order but notes that Nouri al-Malike started making warnings/threats to television stations back in July. CNN reports: "A news alert on Iraqi State TV said the office of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered the office closed for a month."

Ah,
yes, the puppet's war with the press. The so-called peace plan is more
of the same. The third 'plank' is about the media. Which is why the
"brave" US media repeatedly cites the first two and stays silent while a
free media (something a democracy is dependent upon) walks the plank.

It's disgusting and shameful, the third 'plank.' The whole 'plan' is a joke. Reuters is one of the few
to go beyond the first two 'steps' but even it does a really poor job
and those over coverage of Iraq in the mainstream (producers to suits)
are very concerned about this. (So why don't they report it?) The
"plan" isn't a plan for peace, it's a plan for the puppet to attempt to
save his own ass for a few more months. Lee Keath (AP) is
only one of many ignoring the third step (possibly AP thinks readers
are unable to count to four?) but does note that al-Maliki took office
last May with a 24-point plan that, to this day, "has done little to
stem the daily killings." Nor will this so-called 'peace plan.' The US military and the American "ambassador" have announced that Nouri al-Maliki better show some results ('after all we've paid' going unspoken).

To
praise his plan back then, reporters had to ignore the third plank.
Fortunately for Nouri, western reporters have always been more than
willing to cover for him despite -- or maybe because of -- his attacks
on the press. It's why they continue. Mohammed Tawfeeq does real
reporting for CNN out of Iraq. Today he Tweets:

And, of course, there's Aziz Ghazal Abbas, the Alsumaria journalist that the Iraqi military fired on in
Falluja Friday. That's when the Iraqi military opened fire on protesters killing 7 people and
injuring at least sixty (including the Alsumaria journalist). Today Alsumaria reports
that Iraqiya is demanding Nouri al-Malik (prime minister and head of
the Minister of Defense due to his failure to ever nominate someone to
that post) and his puppet 'acting' Minister of Defense Saadoun
al-Dulaimi hand over the military members who opened fire. Iraqiya also
rejects efforts to conflate the death of 2 soldiers with the protest.
The massacre took place first. This dispersed some of the crowd. A
tiny portion remained and others joined it over a two hour period. Only
after that took place were two soldiers harmed -- harmed five
kilometers (roughly 3 miles) from where the protest earlier that day was
held. Nouri and company have repeatedly attempted to rewrite events
and pretend that 2 soldiers were killed and then the military opened
fire. That is not what happened. In related smears, All Iraq News notes State of Law MPs are insisting that Anbar Province is under control of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

Mohammad Sabah (Al Mada) reports
all killed during the protest were civilians and that Iraqiya is
fighting back against the baseless charges (predominately spread by
Nouri's puppet Hussein al-Shahristani) that the seven dead includes 2
members of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and 2 Ba'athists.

All Iraq News notes that Martin Kolber, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Iraq, visited Mosul today to speak with the protesters. Alsumaria adds
that he also met with the Nineveh Provincial Council and Governor
Atheel al-Nujaifi, tribal leaders and clerics. The meeting was closed
door. Dar Addustour explains
that the Parliament Sunday read an initial report from the
Parliamentary Committee formed to investigate what took place in
Falluja. Initial recommendations include keeping the military and
federal police (Nouri controls both) away from protesters and allowing
local forces to provide any protection needed.

Saturday
the Parliament voted to limit the three presidencies (President,
Speaker of Parliament and Prime Minister) to two terms. Wael Grace (Al Mada) reported
that 170 of the 242 MPs present voted in favor of
the law. Ahmed Rasheed, Patrick Markey and Andrew Roche (Reuters) add, "Lawmakers from Sunni, Kurdish and Shi'ite parties
voted for the law, but the legislation still needs the president's
approval and will face challenges in federal court after Maliki's
supporters rejected it as illegal." Today Al Mada reports that
the Federal Supreme Court is set to rule and is expected to rule that
the law is Constitutional but that it cannot be retroactive. Meaning
the law will stand but it will be said to start a policy beginning when
it was passed, therefore Nouri will be able to run for a third term if
he wants to. The editorial board of the Saudi Gazette provides this overview:

Iraqi premier Nouri Al-Maliki appears to have
painted himself into a political corner. Since instigating the trial in
absentia of deputy vice-president Tareq Al-Hashimi, which sentenced the
leading Sunni politician to death for his supposed involvement in Sunni
death squads, Maliki has been losing the support of the Sunni
community. Some might argue
that he has also lost virtually all ability to influence Iraq’s Kurdish
minority which is busy building ever greater autonomy in the north of
the country to the extent that the regional government in Arbil has been
awarding exploration licenses to international oil companies, without
any reference to Baghdad where the final authority ought to rest. It has
been Iraq’s president, the veteran Kurdish politician Jalal Talabani,
who underpinned the notion that Iraq remained united. But the
79-year-old Talabani is abroad recovering from a serious stroke and
there are many who believe that he will never be fit enough to return to
his presidential duties.Now
it seems that many of Maliki’s fellow Shias are also becoming fed up
with his leadership. On Saturday, the parliament voted by a majority of
68 to limit Iraqi prime ministers to two terms in office. Maliki’s
supporters have protested that no such provision was imposed on the
presidency or the speakership of parliament. They have vowed to
challenge the vote in the courts.

AFP reports
Nouri's intent to buy off the protesters, "Iraqi officials said
Tuesday they would raise the salaries of Sunni
militiamen who fought Al-Qaeda during the country’s brutal sectarian
war, the latest bid to appease mostly Sunni anti-government rallies. The
immediate two-thirds increase in wages for the Sahwa, otherwise
known as the Sons of Iraq or the Awakening, comes as officials have
trumpeted a substantial prisoner release in the face of more than a
month of demonstrations in the country’s north and west." And on the
release of a small number of prisoners -- or alleged release -- Al
Jazeera's Jane Arraf Tweets.

Iraq is also a victim of the weather -- mainly due to Nouri's years of
refusing to put any of the billions and billions of oil dollars into
repairing the public infrastructure. When it rains, the lack of
adequate drainage and functioning sewers means the rain quickly floods
the streets of Baghdad. Dar Addustour notes that yesterday saw steady rainfall in Baghdad (check out the photo).
The rains continue today and streets are flooded and electricity is out in many areas. Nouri's Iraq, how proud he must be. All Iraq News also notes a home in Karbala has collapsed due to the rains. AFP's Prashant Rao Tweets:

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About Me

I'm Michael, Mike to my friends. College student working his way through. I'm also Irish-American and The New York Times can kiss my Irish ass. And check out Trina's Kitchen on my links, that's my mother's site.